The OzDMCA: what it means for FOSS - Kimberlee Weatherall

My first session of the day (I was lucky enough to spend a big chunk of the
real first one talking to Richard Weideman, the Education Programme Manager
at Canonical) was recommended to me by all the local people I know at the
conference - and it was as good as they said.

Unlike most people who speak on these topics at Linux / OpenSource / Free
Software conferences, Kimberlee Weatherall IS a lawyer (IP) and was
actively involved in the amendments to the Australian laws. The often
awkward topic was presented damn clearly, with an audience pleasing touch
of humour, and was both an excellent talk and depressing as hell. Short
version: in order to gain a free trade agreement (FTA) with America,
Australia was required to change some of its laws, especially those
concerning copyright.

I’m not going to go in to details, I wouldn’t do the speaker justice,
but it’s well worth reading the slides (the Rusty test alone is worth the
time) and watching the video once it’s up; especially if you’re from one of
the countries that’ll be signing up for a FTA in the future. This was one
of the best sessions I’ve seen here.